Known techniques related to control of vehicle drive units include those disclosed, for example, in JP-A-10-250416 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) and JP-A-5-85228 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2).
The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a generator source generating, for example, mechanical resources and thermal resources, a consumer portion consuming these resources, and an adjuster portion disposed therebetween, the adjuster portion adjusting a relation between an amount of resources supplied by the generator source and an amount of resources consumed by the consumer portion. More specifically, the adjuster portion inquires the amount of resources supplied of the generator source and the amount of resources consumed of the consumer portion, respectively, for collection to thereby determine allocation of the resources to each consumer portion before determining the amount of resources supplied at the generator source and the amount of resources consumed at the consumer portion.
The technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, on the other hand, includes a control structure of a hierarchical structure, in which a driver's demand disposed at a highest level of the hierarchy is transmitted in one direction only to an actuator of each of various running capabilities disposed at a lowest level of the hierarchy.